A writer's job is to imagine everything so personally that the fiction is as vivid as memories.
John IrvingRead
I believe in plot, in development of character, in the effect of the passage of time, in a good story - better than something you might find in the newspaper. And I believe a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote emphasizes the depth and complexity of storytelling through novels compared to simpler narratives found in newspapers.
John Irving expresses his strong belief in the rich, intricate development of characters and plots within novels. He suggests that a good story evolves over time and engages the reader on multiple levels, advocating for the creation of complex narratives that reflect the author's full capabilities, rather than opting for the simplicity often found in journalistic writing.
Themes
StorytellingNovelsComplexityCharacter DevelopmentNarrative
In practice
Example use cases
In a book club meeting, to emphasize the value of novels, one might say: 'As John Irving noted, a novel should be as complicated and involved as you're capable of making it.'
More from John Irving
All quotes →No one but me ever put a hand on me to feel that baby. No one wanted to put his ear against it and listen...You shouldn't have a baby if there's no one who wants to feel it kick or listen to it move.
John IrvingRead
It's not very interesting to establish sympathy for people who, on the surface, are instantly sympathetic. I guess I'm always attracted to people who, if their lives were headlines in a newspaper, you might not be very sympathetic about them.
John IrvingRead
It is an important distinction to note that she looked not only as if she had taken good care of herself, but that she had good reason to have done so. (...) She looked to be in such total possession of her life that only the most confident men could continue to look at her if she looked back at them. Even in bus stations, she was a woman who was stared at only until she looked back.
John IrvingRead
I am doomed to remember a boy with a wrecked voice. Not because of his voice, or because he was the smallest person I ever knew, or even because he was the instrument of my mother's death, but because he is the reason I believe in God. I am a Christian because of Owen Meany.
John IrvingRead
I will tell you what is my overriding perception of the last twenty years: that we are a civilization careening toward a succession of anticlimaxes – toward an infinity of unsatisfying, and disagreeable endings.
John IrvingRead
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